Federal-Mogul Holdings Corp. is looking to take back the aftermarket through a new branding and education campaign.

The Southfield-based automotive parts supplier is renaming its aftermarket division Federal-Mogul Motorparts and hiring traveling technical staff to inform customers about quality differences in the aftermarket.

Daniel Ninivaggi

Daniel Ninivaggi, CEO of the aftermarket division and co-CEO of the holdings company, said Federal-Mogul’s brands Moog, Fel-Pro, Champion, Wagner, ANCO and Ferodo have fallen victim to poorly made Chinese parts sold at big box auto parts stores.

“The aftermarket has seen an increase in poor quality, nonbrand parts, especially in the last five years,” Ninivaggi said. “We, the industry, haven’t done a good job telling the public about our parts; about the quality and safety differences.”

A new Federal-Mogul Motorparts logo and marketing campaigns for its product brands will be rolled out immediately, the company said.

The restructuring of the division will also include a new technical education program for customers. Federal-Mogul plans to hire 30 technicians from metro Detroit who will travel the U.S. to educate installers and sales outlets on the company’s products. The group will be hired and trained over the next three to six months.

“We used to train installers, but as the AutoZones and O’Reillys took over, they began to train them; when we lost that connection customers began converting to private-label, cheap products,” Ninivaggi said. “There’s no easy way for consumers to tell which parts are higher quality, so we’re going to engage the installers directly and communicate about our quality.”

A new commerce and instructional website for its products will be completed in the next 12 months, Ninivaggi said.

The move coincides with Federal-Mogul’s plan to open two new 500,000-square-foot distribution centers in Southern California and New York, which was announced in an earnings call earlier this month.

Ninivaggi said the push will make a “meaningful” difference in the aftermarket division sales.

“We have lost sales, significant sales over the last five years, because of the migration from premium to cheap products,” he said. “Our goal is to regain those sales.”

The rebranding is one of many changes at the supplier in recent years.

For years, rumors circulated of activist investor Carl Icahn's desire to sell his majority stake in Federal-Mogul (Nasdaq: FDML). The board in 2012, under Icahn's push, split the diversified auto parts supplier in two. It appeared a calculated move to sell at least one of the businesses in the private equity feeding frenzy of the post-recession. Yet, the deals never transpired, and for now it seems Icahn is focusing energy, and capital, to growing its aftermarket business into an international juggernaut with a mainline to his oversight.

Ninivaggi became the third co-CEO in February in less than two years. He replaced Kevin Freeland in the position; Freeland left the company for personal reasons, the company said in a statement. Freeland was hired in the role in May 2013.

Ninivaggi had served as president and CEO of New York-based Icahn Enterprises LP since 2010.

In April, Federal-Mogul Corp. became a subsidiary of the newly formed holding company after it completed a transaction to convert stocks. The company, and its Motorparts and original-equipment divisions, is now the operating unit of the holdings company.

Federal-Mogul has long struggled with profitability. It reported net income of $93 million on revenue of $6.8 billion in 2013, its first profitable year since 2010.